The Science

In genetics, a phenotype is a set of observable characteristics of an organism. Thanks to recent progress in phenotyping, it is now possible to render the face of anyone from a strand of DNA with amazing accuracy. Genes make us who we are. They include the blueprint of the color of our eyes, but also many morphological features that make our face so unique.

The science of Personality AI is built upon decades of research on the psychological, genetic and neurological basis of our temperament.

For your convenience, we have organized dozens of critical scientific articles that make significant contributions to our understanding of personality traits and their genetic basis.

Traditional personality assessments: history and limitations

  • Personality impression studies
  • Personality genetics
  • Facial genetics
  • Conversational AI
  • Personality AI

References

Hidden
Personality AI

Borkenau, P., Brecke, S., Möttig, C., & Paelecke, M. (2009). Extraversion is accurately perceived after a 50-ms exposure to a face. Journal of Research in Personality, 43(4), 703-706. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2009.03.007

Calder, A. J., & Young, A. W. (2005). Understanding the recognition of facial identity and facial expression. Nature reviews Neuroscience, 6(8), 641-651. doi:10.1038/nrn1724

Geniole, S. N., Denson, T. F., Dixson, B. J., Carré, J. M., & McCormick, C. M. (2015). Evidence from Meta-Analyses of the Facial Width-to-Height Ratio as an Evolved Cue of Threat. PLos ONE, 10(7), e0132726. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0132726

Hodges-Simeon, C. R., Albert, G., Richardson, G. B., McHale, T. S., Weinberg, S. M., Gurven, M., & Gaulin, S. J. C. (2021). Was facial width-to-height ratio subject to sexual selection pressures? A life course approach. PLos ONE, 16(3), e0240284. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0240284

Hu, S., Xiong, J., Fu, P., Qiao, L., Tan, J., Jin, L., & Tang, K. (2017). Signatures of personality on dense 3D facial images. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 73. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-00071-5

Kachur, A., Osin, E., Davydov, D., Shutilov, K., & Novokshonov, A. (2020). Assessing the Big Five personality traits using real-life static facial images. Sci Rep, 10(1), 8487. doi:10.1038/s41598-020-65358-6

Pound, N., Penton-Voak, I. S., & Brown, W. M. (2007). Facial symmetry is positively associated with self-reported extraversion. Personality and Individual Differences, 43(6), 1572-1582. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2007.04.014

Valentine, K. A., Li, N. P., Penke, L., & Perrett, D. I. (2014). Judging a man by the width of his face: the role of facial ratios and dominance in mate choice at speed-dating events. Psychol Sci, 25(3), 806-811. doi:10.1177/0956797613511823

Walker, M., Schönborn, S., Greifeneder, R., & Vetter, T. (2018). The Basel Face Database: A validated set of photographs reflecting systematic differences in Big Two and Big Five personality dimensions. PLos ONE, 13(3), e0193190. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0193190

Walker, M., & Vetter, T. (2016). Changing the personality of a face: Perceived Big Two and Big Five personality factors modeled in real photographs. J Pers Soc Psychol, 110(4), 609-624. doi:10.1037/pspp0000064

Wang, Y., & Kosinski, M. (2018). Deep neural networks are more accurate than humans at detecting sexual orientation from facial images. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 114(2), 246-257. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000098

Welker, K. M., Goetz, S. M., & Carré, J. M. (2015). Perceived and experimentally manipulated status moderates the relationship between facial structure and risk-taking. Evolution and Human Behavior, 36(6), 423-429.

Facial Genetics

Arnocky, S., Carré, J. M., Bird, B. M., Moreau, B. J. P., Vaillancourt, T., Ortiz, T., & Marley, N. (2018). The Facial Width-to-Height Ratio Predicts Sex Drive, Sociosexuality, and Intended Infidelity. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 47(5), 1375-1385. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10508-017-1070-x

Axelrod, V., & Yovel, G. (2015). Successful decoding of famous faces in the fusiform face area. PLos ONE, 10(2), e0117126.

Carpenter, J. P., Garcia, J. R., & Lum, J. K. (2011). Dopamine receptor genes predict risk preferences, time preferences, and related economic choices. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 42(3), 233-261.

Carré, J. M., & McCormick, C. M. (2008). In your face: facial metrics predict aggressive behaviour in the laboratory and in varsity and professional hockey players. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 275(1651), 2651-2656.

Claes, P., Liberton, D. K., Daniels, K., Rosana, K. M., Quillen, E. E., Pearson, L. N., . . . Yao, W. (2014). Modeling 3D facial shape from DNA. PLOS Genetics, 10(3), e1004224.

Douglas, T. S., & Mutsvangwa, T. E. (2010). A review of facial image analysis for delineation of the facial phenotype associated with fetal alcohol syndrome. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part A, 152(2), 528-536.

Geniole, S. N., & McCormick, C. M. (2015). Facing our ancestors: judgements of aggression are consistent and related to the facial width-to-height ratio in men irrespective of beards. Evolution and Human Behavior, 36(4), 279-285.

Godinho, R. M., Spikins, P., & O’Higgins, P. (2018). Supraorbital morphology and social dynamics in human evolution. Nature ecology & evolution, 2(6), 956-961.

Goffaux, V., & Rossion, B. (2006). Faces are” spatial”–holistic face perception is supported by low spatial frequencies. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 32(4), 1023.

Gurovich, Y., Hanani, Y., Bar, O., Nadav, G., Fleischer, N., Gelbman, D., . . . Zenker, M. (2019). Identifying facial phenotypes of genetic disorders using deep learning. Nature medicine, 25(1), 60-64.

Hahn, T., Winter, N. R., Anderl, C., Notebaert, K., Wuttke, A. M., Clément, C. C., & Windmann, S. (2017). Facial width-to-height ratio differs by social rank across organizations, countries, and value systems. PLos ONE, 12(11), e0187957. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0187957

Hammond, P., & Suttie, M. (2012). Large‐scale objective phenotyping of 3D facial morphology. Human mutation, 33(5), 817-825.

Haselhuhn, M. P., Ormiston, M. E., & Wong, E. M. (2015). Men’s facial width-to-height ratio predicts aggression: A meta-analysis. PLos ONE, 10(4), e0122637.

Haselhuhn, M. P., & Wong, E. M. (2012). Bad to the bone: facial structure predicts unethical behaviour. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 279(1728), 571-576.

Hodges-Simeon, C. R., Albert, G., Richardson, G. B., McHale, T. S., Weinberg, S. M., Gurven, M., & Gaulin, S. J. (2021). Was facial width-to-height ratio subject to sexual selection pressures? A life course approach. PLos ONE, 16(3), e0240284.

Hodges-Simeon, C. R., Albert, G., Richardson, G. B., McHale, T. S., Weinberg, S. M., Gurven, M., & Gaulin, S. J. C. (2021). Was facial width-to-height ratio subject to sexual selection pressures? A life course approach. PLos ONE, 16(3), e0240284. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0240284

Kendler, K. S., Aggen, S. H., Gillespie, N., Krueger, R. F., Czajkowski, N., Ystrom, E., & Reichborn-Kjennerud, T. (2019). The structure of genetic and environmental influences on normative personality, abnormal personality traits, and personality disorder symptoms. Psychological Medicine, 49(8), 1392-1399.

Kramer, R. S. S. (2012). Facial Signals of Personality in Humans and Chimpanzees. (Dissertation/Thesis), ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, Retrieved from https://go.exlibris.link/00C0vMFW

Lefevre, C. E., Etchells, P. J., Howell, E. C., Clark, A. P., & Penton-Voak, I. S. (2014). Facial width-to-height ratio predicts self-reported dominance and aggression in males and females, but a measure of masculinity does not. Biology letters, 10(10), 20140729.

Lefevre, C. E., Lewis, G. J., Perrett, D. I., & Penke, L. (2013). Telling facial metrics: facial width is associated with testosterone levels in men. Evolution and Human Behavior, 34(4), 273-279.

Penton-Voak, I. S., & Chen, J. Y. (2004). High salivary testosterone is linked to masculine male facial appearance in humans. Evolution and Human Behavior, 25(4), 229-241.

Richmond, S., Howe, L. J., Lewis, S., Stergiakouli, E., & Zhurov, A. (2018). Facial genetics: a brief overview. Frontiers in genetics, 9, 462.

Robertson, J. M., Kingsley, B. E., & Ford, G. C. (2017). Sexually dimorphic faciometrics in humans from early adulthood to late middle age: Dynamic, declining, and differentiated. Evolutionary Psychology, 15(3), 1474704917730640.

Verhallen, R. J., Bosten, J. M., Goodbourn, P. T., Bargary, G., Lawrance-Owen, A. J., & Mollon, J. D. (2014). An online version of the Mooney Face Test: phenotypic and genetic associations. Neuropsychologia, 63, 19-25. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.08.011

Whitehouse, A. J., Gilani, S. Z., Shafait, F., Mian, A., Tan, D. W., Maybery, M. T., . . . Goonawardene, M. (2015). Prenatal testosterone exposure is related to sexually dimorphic facial morphology in adulthood. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 282(1816), 20151351.

Personality Assessment

Cuperman, R., & Ickes, W. (2009). Big Five predictors of behavior and perceptions in initial dyadic interactions: Personality similarity helps extraverts and introverts, but hurts “disagreeables”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(4), 667.

Curran, P. G. (2016). Methods for the detection of carelessly invalid responses in survey data. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 66, 4-19.

Harris, K., & Vazire, S. (2016). On friendship development and the Big Five personality traits. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 10(11), 647-667.

Hudson, N. W., Briley, D. A., Chopik, W. J., & Derringer, J. (2019). You have to follow through: Attaining behavioral change goals predicts volitional personality change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 117(4), 839.

Paunonen, S. V., Ashton, M. C., & Jackson, D. N. (2001). Nonverbal assessment of the Big Five personality factors. European Journal of Personality, 15(1), 3-18. doi:10.1002/per.385

Ringwald, W. R., Manuck, S. B., Marsland, A. L., & Wright, A. G. C. (2021). Psychometric Evaluation of a Big Five Personality State Scale for Intensive Longitudinal Studies. Assessment, 10731911211008254. doi:10.1177/10731911211008254

Schmidt, F. L., Oh, I.-S., & Shaffer, J. A. (2016). The Validity and Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel Psychology: Practical and Theoretical Implications of 100 Years. Fox School of Business Research Paper, 1-74.

Weidmann, R., Schönbrodt, F. D., Ledermann, T., & Grob, A. (2017). Concurrent and longitudinal dyadic polynomial regression analyses of Big Five traits and relationship satisfaction: Does similarity matter? Journal of Research in Personality, 70, 6-15.

Personality Impression Studies

Brown, M., & Sacco, D. F. (2017). Unrestricted sociosexuality predicts preferences for extraverted male faces. Personality and Individual Differences, 108, 123-127.

Guthrie, M., Kim, H. S., & Jung, J. (2008). The effects of facial image and cosmetic usage on perceptions of brand personality. Journal of fashion marketing and management: an international journal.

Junior, J. C. S. J., Güçlütürk, Y., Pérez, M., Güçlü, U., Andujar, C., Baró, X., . . . Van Lier, R. (2019). First impressions: A survey on vision-based apparent personality trait analysis. IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing.

Kramer, R. S., & Ward, R. (2010). Internal facial features are signals of personality and health. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 63(11), 2273-2287.

Lin, C., Adolphs, R., & Alvarez, R. M. (2018). Inferring whether officials are corruptible from looking at their faces. Psychological Science, 29(11), 1807-1823.

Little, A. C., Burt, D. M., & Perrett, D. I. (2006). Assortative mating for perceived facial personality traits. Personality and Individual Differences, 40(5), 973-984.

Little, A. C., & Perrett, D. I. (2007). Using composite images to assess accuracy in personality attribution to faces. British Journal of Psychology, 98(1), 111-126.

Naumann, L. P., Vazire, S., Rentfrow, P. J., & Gosling, S. D. (2009). Personality judgments based on physical appearance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35(12), 1661-1671.

Oosterhof, N. N., & Todorov, A. (2008). The functional basis of face evaluation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(32), 11087-11092.

Penton-Voak, I. S., Pound, N., Little, A. C., & Perrett, D. I. (2006). Personality judgments from natural and composite facial images: More evidence for a “kernel of truth” in social perception. Social cognition, 24(5), 607-640.

Qiu, L., Lu, J., Yang, S., Qu, W., & Zhu, T. (2015). What does your selfie say about you? Computers in Human Behavior, 52, 443-449.

Quadflieg, S., Todorov, A., Laguesse, R., & Rossion, B. (2012). Normal face-based judgements of social characteristics despite severely impaired holistic face processing. Visual cognition, 20(8), 865-882.

Rhodes, G., Simmons, L. W., & Peters, M. (2005). Attractiveness and sexual behavior: Does attractiveness enhance mating success? Evolution and Human Behavior, 26(2), 186-201.

Sacco, D. F., & Brown, M. (2018). The face of personality: Adaptive inferences from facial cues are moderated by perceiver personality and motives. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 12(8), e12410.

Tagai, K., Ohtaka, H., & Nittono, H. (2016). Faces with light makeup are better recognized than faces with heavy makeup. Front Psychol, 7, 226.

Todorov, A., Loehr, V., & Oosterhof, N. N. (2010). The obligatory nature of holistic processing of faces in social judgments. Perception, 39(4), 514-532.

Yamagishi, T., Tanida, S., Mashima, R., Shimoma, E., & Kanazawa, S. (2003). You can judge a book by its cover: Evidence that cheaters may look different from cooperators. Evolution and Human Behavior, 24(4), 290-301.

Young, A. W., Hellawell, D., & Hay, D. C. (2013). Configurational information in face perception. Perception, 42(11), 1166-1178.

Personality Genetics

Borkenau, P., Brecke, S., Möttig, C., & Paelecke, M. (2009). Extraversion is accurately perceived after a 50-ms exposure to a face. Journal of Research in Personality, 43(4), 703-706. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2009.03.007

Bouchard, T. J., & Loehlin, J. C. (2001). Genes, Evolution, and Personality. Behavior Genetics, 31(3), 243-273. doi:10.1023/A:1012294324713

Bouchard, T. J., Lykken, D. T., McGue, M., Segal, N. L., & Tellegen, A. (1990). Sources of Human Psychological Differences: The Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart. Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science), 250(4978), 223-228. doi:10.1126/science.2218526

Carré, J. M., & Archer, J. (2018). Testosterone and human behavior: the role of individual and contextual variables. Current Opinion in Psychology, 19, 149-153. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.03.021

Carré, J. M., McCormick, C. M., & Mondloch, C. J. (2009). Facial Structure Is a Reliable Cue of Aggressive Behavior. Psychological Science, 20(10), 1194-1198. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02423.x

Claes, P., Liberton, D. K., Daniels, K., Rosana, K. M., Quillen, E. E., Pearson, L. N., . . . Shriver, M. D. (2014). Modeling 3D Facial Shape from DNA. PLOS Genetics, 10(3), e1004224. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1004224

Connolly, J. J., Kavanagh, E. J., & Viswesvaran, C. (2007). The Convergent Validity between Self and Observer Ratings of Personality: A meta-analytic review. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 15(1), 110-117. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2389.2007.00371.x

Dreber, A., Apicella, C. L., Eisenberg, D. T. A., Garcia, J. R., Zamore, R. S., Lum, J. K., & Campbell, B. (2009). The 7R polymorphism in the dopamine receptor D4 gene (DRD4) is associated with financial risk taking in men. Evolution and Human Behavior, 30(2), 85-92. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2008.11.001

Eisenegger, C., Kumsta, R., Naef, M., Gromoll, J., & Heinrichs, M. (2017). Testosterone and androgen receptor gene polymorphism are associated with confidence and competitiveness in men. Hormones and behavior, 92, 93-102. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2016.09.011

Han, W., Zhang, M., Feng, X., Gong, G., Peng, K., & Zhang, D. (2018). Genetic influences on creativity: an exploration of convergent and divergent thinking. PeerJ, 6, e5403. doi:10.7717/peerj.5403

Karsten, J., Penninx, B. W., Riese, H., Ormel, J., Nolen, W. A., & Hartman, C. A. (2012). The state effect of depressive and anxiety disorders on big five personality traits. J Psychiatr Res, 46(5), 644-650. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2012.01.024

Kramer, R. S. S., King, J. E., & Ward, R. (2011). Identifying personality from the static, nonexpressive face in humans and chimpanzees: evidence of a shared system for signaling personality. Evolution and Human Behavior, 32(3), 179-185. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2010.10.005

Kunz, L., Reuter, M., Axmacher, N., & Montag, C. (2017). Conscientiousness is Negatively Associated with Grey Matter Volume in Young APOE varepsilon4-Carriers. J Alzheimers Dis, 56(3), 1135-1144. doi:10.3233/JAD-160854

Lukaszewski, A. W., & Roney, J. R. (2011). The Origins of Extraversion: Joint Effects of Facultative Calibration and Genetic Polymorphism. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37(3), 409-421. doi:10.1177/0146167210397209

Lunansky, G., van Borkulo, C., & Borsboom, D. (2020). Personality, Resilience, and Psychopathology: A Model for the Interaction between Slow and Fast Network Processes in the Context of Mental Health. European Journal of Personality, 34(6), 969-987. doi:10.1002/per.2263

Lykken, D. T. (2006). The mechanism of emergenesis. Genes, Brain and Behavior, 5(4), 306-310. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1601-183X.2006.00233.x

Røysamb, E., Nes, R. B., Czajkowski, N. O., & Vassend, O. (2018). Genetics, personality and wellbeing. A twin study of traits, facets and life satisfaction. Scientific Reports, 8(1), 12298. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-29881-x

Sanchez-Roige, S., Gray, J. C., MacKillop, J., Chen, C.-H., & Palmer, A. A. (2018). The genetics of human personality. Genes, Brain and Behavior, 17(3), e12439. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/gbb.12439

Stirrat, M., & Perrett, D. I. (2010). Valid Facial Cues to Cooperation and Trust: Male Facial Width and Trustworthiness. Psychological Science, 21(3), 349-354. doi:10.1177/0956797610362647

Swaddle, J. P., & Reierson, G. W. (2002). Testosterone increases perceived dominance but not attractiveness in human males. Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences, 269(1507), 2285-2289. doi:10.1098/rspb.2002.2165

Valentine, K. A., Li, N. P., Penke, L., & Perrett, D. I. (2014). Judging a Man by the Width of His Face: The Role of Facial Ratios and Dominance in Mate Choice at Speed-Dating Events. Psychological Science, 25(3), 806-811. doi:10.1177/0956797613511823

Voracek, M., Egle, J., Schleicher, S., Loibl, L. M., & Sonneck, G. (2007). The Beliefs in the Inheritance of Risk Factors for Suicide Scale (BIRFSS): further results on demographic correlates, dimensionality, reliability, and validity. Omega (Westport), 55(4), 279-296. doi:10.2190/OM.55.4.c

Vukasović, T., & Bratko, D. (2015). Heritability of personality: A meta-analysis of behavior genetic studies. Psychological Bulletin, 141(4), 769-785. doi:10.1037/bul0000017

Zmorzyński, S., Styk, W., Klinkosz, W., Iskra, J., & Filip, A. A. (2021). Personality traits and polymorphisms of genes coding neurotransmitter receptors or transporters: review of single gene and genome-wide association studies. Annals of General Psychiatry, 20(1), 7. doi:10.1186/s12991-021-00328-4

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